Title

Author

Date of Award

1997

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

History

First Advisor

Simmons, Christina,

Keywords

History, Black.

Rights

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Abstract

Focusing on the period known as the Harlem Renaissance circa 1920-1930, this study explores various forms of sexual expression open to, and opened by, black women. By defining the dominant ideology which made black female sexuality both its subject and object, this thesis examines the various ways that black women either conformed to or conflicted with dominant ideological formulae, and in doing so, approached sexual self-actualization. This study examines two art forms, literature and the blues, to demonstrate the available and varied modes in which black women expressed and defined female sexuality. My thesis proves that both female novelists and blues women played important roles in defining black female sexuality. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 37-01, page: 0100. Adviser: Christina Simmons. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1997.